New Commander Power Bracket Survey With 225,000 Votes Has Players Conflicted on Iconic Staple

Last updated on December 26, 2024

Plea for Power | Illustration by John Severin Brassel

Following WotC's announcement of a power bracket system to rate EDH cards, a survey on Reddit received more than 225,000 votes sorting the 150 most popular Commander cards into the four proposed brackets.

The survey was initially posted on October 3rd, 2024, just three days after WotC announced that they would be taking over management of the Commander format in partnership with the Commander Rules Committee.

WotC has yet to make any additional announcements about their plans, but they did share one of the ideas they are considering last week on WeeklyMTG: ranking cards according to a four-tier “power bracket” system. This system would sort cards from bracket one (cards that can go into any deck) to bracket four (high-power deck).

As noted by Blake Rassmussen, Gavin Verhey, and Aaron Forsythe during the podcast, this is currently a very crude first approach. Going forward, there could be more (or fewer) brackets, cards could be rated either “in a vacuum” or as part of a combo, etc. What's clear is that WotC intends this system to be a conversation starter, rather than an objective power scale.

And, as far as conversation starters go, this system already seems to be working!

Shortly after WotC's announcement, Reddit user u/Ninjaboi333 conducted a survey that got over 225,000 votes rating 150 of the most popular cards and commanders in the format.

Ninjaboi333 published the survey results yesterday, and WotC's Gavin Verhey on Reddit and Twitter/X warmly received their efforts.

The survey's numbers are quite interesting; let's look at some highlights.

Cards versus Commanders

The most salient point is that, when ranking the 100 most popular EDH cards according to EDHREC, the grades are heavily skewed towards bracket one (the least powerful bracket): the huge majority of the most popular Commander cards ended up in that category when sorting them either by mode (that's to say, the category they got the most votes for), or by average.

In particular, the average grade given to cards in the 99 was 1.756, with the recently-banned Dockside Extortionist as the highest-graded card.

But when looking at the 50 most popular commanders, the average grade is 2.25, with Yuriko, the Tiger's Shadow and Urza, Lord High Artificer being the only bracket-four commanders.

This data supports a common concern from players: How is a deck’s power level affected if it has a top-tier commander with weak cards (or a weak commander with a deck full of cEDH staples)?

The Rules Committee was keenly aware that some players wished there was a separate Banned-as-Commander list, but they preferred not to have one.

Thus far, the data suggests WotC may need to make matters clear here. If players have a conception that powerful Commanders can skew a deck's power ranking, and believe that commanders overall are a greater threat, it weakens the tier system by creating power rankings before people even mention their deck's contents.

Rocks versus Value Engines

Ninjaboi333 also tagged each card according to several broad categories (mana rock, counterspell, board wipe, etc.).

Redditors rated mana rocks as the least threatening category, with even powerful staples like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet being put in bracket one by the majority of the votes. While the absence of Mana Crypt and Jeweled Lotus brings down the average, mana rocks remain some of the most generically powerful and explosive cards in the game. Despite this, Sol Ring was the most divisive card in the survey. While 750 people placed it in bracket one, the lower tier, nearly 550 placed it in bracket four, the highest.

The huge majority of ramp spells, mana dorks, and removal were also rated into bracket one.

Recursion, board wipes, and counterspells are where things start heating up: the categories themselves were graded as bracket two overall, with the strongest staples like Cyclonic Rift being bracket three and free counterspells placed in bracket four.

Protection spells (think Teferi's Protection) and value engines (such as Rhystic Study or Esper Sentinel) are the next strongest categories, graded at 2.2 and 2.6 on average.

And, at the apex, Redditors placed nonland tutors: the category as a whole was graded as 3.3, with the best black tutors at 4.

It's worth noting that the survey focused on the 100 most popular cards (and 50 most popular commanders). Some very strong, but not as popular options (like Delighted Halfling or Kinnan, Bonder Prodigy) were not graded because they didn't make the top cut in popularity.   

Positive Community Reception

Gift of Estates – Illustration by Justin Hernandez and Alexis Hernandez

The survey has garnered some positive reactions from members of the Magic community:

“Surprisingly, I agree with most of where the community as a whole thinks certain cards should go,” wrote u/Necavi in the second most-voted reply. 

“I could nitpick about personal preference between tiers 2 and 3 but all in all, I would be very happy with this division and its overall direction as a community consensus.”

“I feel like some commanders such as Chatterfang or Animar got downplayed a little,” commented u/dicoth0my, “but I mostly agree on everything. Personal opinions aside, this is definetly a good database. I really hope WotC checks it out!!”

Given that Gavin Verhey’s reply is the top-voted in the survey's thread, it's a safe bet that WotC indeed has.

The success and general consensus of this survey (not taking into account disagreements over Sol Ring) indicate that the bracket system may not be so controversial after all. Players are in general agreement with one another thanks to years of Rule 0 being the guiding light, and if the official bracket system looks anything like this survey, it'll help provide official recognition and codify and already agreed upon system.